Introduction

In recent years, the development of Twitter and Social Network Site (SNS) have transformed the situation of the public opinion in the Internet. More and more grass-roots Internet users begin to participate in making and spreading news and information. China has the most Internet users in the world. According to the newest report of China Internet Network Information Center (2013), there were a total of 564 million Internet users in 2012. Among them, there is a group of people, who work as online paid posters, called “Internet Water Army”. They post comments and arguments on the websites to advertise, promote or attack other people or products. Thus, it seriously damages the public opinion environment. This paper aims to make a contribution to the study of Internet water army, finding the causes and consequences.What’s more, giving discussions and evaluations some solutions that have been proposed to tackle this problem are also a part of the purpose. First, the essay will give the definition of water army and briefly introduce its consequences. Then, it will discuss the causes. Thirdly, it will outline the possible solutions and try to evaluate which one is better. Finally, it offers the summaries.

Definition and Effect

In China, Internet water army is a new word, so there is no authoritative definition for it. Srinivasan , Zhang, Chen and Wu (2011) notes that Internet water army are referred to as the “paid posters”, who are often well organized to “flood” the Internet with purposeful comments and articles. Zuo (2011) points out that the water army are a large group of Internet users, who are hired by public relations companies and post unconfirmed business or other comments for profit.
In short, Chang (2011) notes that water army is a increasing part-time job for many users, especially for college students and people who don’t have jobs. The information posted by them is often not truthful because the aim of their comments is to give the ordinary users the false news about the competitor. They are often used in the commercial competition and insulting someone. Zuo (2011) argues that the normal online users may not recognize which one is reliable. Then it will cause the trust crisis and they will not put trust in the news or comments from the websites any more.

Causes

It is believed that the emergence of the water army is not by accident. With the influence of online public opinion being more and more greater, the advantage of the network has been used to manipulate the opinion to make specific corporations or organizations to get benefits (Liu,2012).

Most water army are driven by the interests. As Marx (1975) had said, once it has the appropriate profits, the capital will be used in everywhere. So, Wang (2001) argues that the payment of the water army is not a secret. No matter posting or deleting some information, all one needs to do is paying money for the water army and they will do everything to meet the requirements (Gao,2011).

In addition, imperfect Internet management leads to the development of the water army. It is believed that Internet gives the water army the stage, where they can use any name to show their views. Because of the anonymity, the Internet is not easy to control. Chang (2011) points out that the anonymity becomes an opportunity for water army to post some untruthful information, which will mislead normal online users. By far, no law has been made to counter this phenomenon. Without the legal restraint, more and more people join the water army to earn the money.

Social problems may be the most fundamental reason for the rise of paid posters. Gao (2012) reports the gini coefficient in China has already exceeded 0. 49 or even more higher. However, the standard is 0.46. Social conflict has increased dramatically, which cause the public have too much dissatisfied things. They have no access to the truth, so they turn into the Internet, which give the water army the opportunity to make up a lie to achieve their aims.

Solutions and Evaluations

The water army make the public opinion environment become worse. They use the network to incite the ordinary people, distorting the facts. At the same time, the unfair competition, violation of privacy and trust crisis are all caused by the new job ---- water army. Thus, it’s a challenge for the government to solve this problem suitably.

In order to regulate the posters, the source need to be paid more attention. Two ways are included: one is to prohibit recruitment of the water army, the other is forbidding hiring the water army. Liu (2011) points out that the key to solve the problem is how to deal with the interests. If all the online public companies make money by the water army, it will be difficult to reduce the number of them. From this point, this solution is only a theoretical possible. However, it still needs the law and regulation. Relying on the network technology, finding the news posted by water army in time and deleting the bad information to clean the network environment.

Besides, the real-name registration system, which is based on the users’ real names, is a significant means for the websites controlled. It can effectively prevent the water army use the false name from spreading rumors and maliciously violating the reputation of others (Jing, Lv & Ruifang, Liu 2011). However, the propose is controversial. Those who don’t support the system argue that the real-name system limits the freedom of speech. In addition, it’s clear that people have the right of the freedom, but they also have to take the responsibility of their views. The unconfirmed information can not be spread online, or else they should be punished.

Furthermore, it is correct that the information should be open to the public. According to Sterling (2010), the reason why the water army have the market shares is largely due to the behavior of the government being transparent and the information miscommunication. Being open to the public and leaving no chance for hyping is an useful tool for government to manage the water army (Zuo 2011). However, it is hard to say whether the officials can make it because there exists some news, which they don’t want the public to know much details.

Conclusion

Detection the solutions of water army is an meaningful study topic and deserves further investigation. In general, it seems that there is no method which is most effective and could easy to achieve the goal. From this respect, there is an urgent need for research on the solutions, which should help forbid the rumors online. It may be a best way to combine the real-name system with the government.

Refences

China Internet Network Information Center (2013) Report on the Internet in China. At http://www.cnnic.net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/hlwtjbg/201301/t20130115
_38508. htm. Accessed 15 January, 2013.

Lingyu, Chang (2011) The online water army: lacking of network media responsibility. New Media, 8(4), pp. 59-41.

Chen, Chen., Kui, Wu.,Venkatesh, Srinivasan., & Xudong, Zhang. (2011) Battling the Internet water army: detection of hidden paid posters. At http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.4297. Accessed 12 July, 2013.

H. Gao, J. Hu, C. Wilson, Z. Li, Y. Chen, & B. Zhao (2010) Detecting and characterizing social spam campaigns. In proceedings of the 10th annual conference on Internet measurement (Ed.), pp. 35-47.

Bhattarai, V. Rus, & D. Dasgupta (2009) Characterizing comment spam in the blogosphere through content analysis. In Computational Intelligence in Cyber Security (Ed.) IEEE Symposium, pp 37 -44.

Jing, Lv & Ruifang, Liu (2011) Discussion on impacts of network navy. The newspaper of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. 5 October, 2011.

Qiuwen, Liu (2012) The benefit of the Internet water army. New Media, 9(5), pp. 68-69.

Manyi, Wu (2008) An introduction to the network media. Beijing: Industry of National Defense Press.

Qi, Zuo (2011) The Internet water army: social damage and management. Journal of China Criminal Police University, 4(12), pp. 24-26.

Yuan, Gao (2011) Why the Internet water army can live. Guangming Daily. 19 January, 2011.

Bruce,Sterling (2010) The Chinese online "Water Army". At http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/06/the-chinese-online-water-army/. Accessed 12 July, 2013.

Adam Clark Estes (2011) The Spam-Slinging Habits of China's Internet Water Army.At http://m.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/11/chinas-spam- slinging-internet-water-army/45382/. Accessed 12 July, 2013.

-----------------------
1